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07/18/2012

Buying A Voice: Crossroads GPS continues attacks on Kaine

Crossroads GPS Is a 501(C) 4 and can raise and spend as much as it wants, without disclosing where their cash is coming from. Their spending in the Virginia senate race is on pace to be more than what Senate candidate George Allen will spend on television advertising himself.

But every dime spent by Crossroads, will help Allen in a big way, including a new ad rapping his opponent Tim Kaine on his support of the federal stimulus plan.

Here is a look at the ad:

Nate Hodson the group's state and regional media relations director, ranks Virginia as one the election's most important states.

"We are going to keep the pressure on Tim Kaine to support the policies that Virginians want and should expect in their next United States Senator," Hodson said.

Crossroads will spend $5 point 7 million in Virginia. The spending is part of $23.5 million on senate races across the country, and up to $70 million total in this election. Despite all that cash, Crossroads will not reveal who their donors are. Instead, Hodson said the conversation should be about Tim Kaine's record.

"All we can do is communicate that to voters,” Hodson said of the groups attacks against Kaine. “That is what we are focused on doing."

So we are left to fill in the blanks. Their management team is filled with former Bush administration officials and their co- founder is Karl Rove. According to a report in Roll Call, Rove remains the main fundraiser for the group, but his official capacity in the organization is in "informal".

"He has no direct role in the day to day activity as far as what ads we are running where or when we are running those ads," Hodson said of Rove. He also said that Rove doesn’t receive a salary.

Crossroads represents perhaps the best example of a big dollar group investing heavily in Virginia, with voters having no idea where all the money is coming from.

It is a legal practice, but one candidate Kaine asked candidate Allen to join together and ask the groups to say out of Virginia or reveal who is providing them their cash.

Allen turned down the offer, and now the money continues to flow on behalf of both campaigns.

Our partners at PolitiFact took a look at this ad as well and ruled that the claims the ad makes about stimulus funding going to studying ants in Africa was true, but even Crossroads admits that Kaine himself never specifically lobbied for that project.